A/N: I had QuinnAbrams guest-write most of this one! I got it started, gave her a few ideas, and she ran with it. Can't thank her enough! I hope you enjoy reading this next installment, brought to you sooner rather than later, thanks to my fabulous guest. Be sure to check out all her stories. She's started one more that's yet to be posted, so you'll want to get all caught up on the step-brothers 'verse before it's up!
On Wednesday morning, Artie rolled towards the entrance to the community pool, arriving fifteen minutes before it opened only to those coming for swimming lessons. As he approached the entrance, it hit him that he was nervous. Just because he knew how to swim proficiently as a guy in a wheelchair didn't necessarily mean he could teach someone else to do it. Especially when that someone else was just five or six years old. And he really didn't know much about kids. But fake it until you make it, right? That had been his motto, the first time he'd directed the school musical, and it had worked out for him then.
He and Marley were the first to arrive as Chad unlocked the gate and let them in. She gave him a shy smile as they clocked in. Artie had recently been added to the schedule, just for the first hour of the each morning, of course. And to make things even more official, Chad handed him a pair of red swim trunks just like the ones Sam and Blaine wore, saying, "I guessed a small?"
Good guess, Artie thought, begrudgingly, but he was pleased that Chad had thought to have him dress like one of the regular staff. He'd come clad in dark blue swim trunks, layered over long black spandex leggings. The leggings served the dual purpose of covering his legs and protecting his skin during transfers onto the pavement. He also had on water shoes for that same reason, to protect his toes. And finally, he had on a dark t-shirt, which he was sort of hoping to keep on during lessons. However, seeing as Chad had just gifted him with one of the uniforms, maybe that wasn't gonna fly. He didn't want to be too much trouble, so he decided he wouldn't ask. Artie wheeled off in the direction of the men's room, so that he could slip into the shorts. He'd be keeping the leggings on, and if Chad asked, he'd just explain about the need for added protections for his lower limbs.
When he returned, Chad didn't say anything about the leggings. Sam had just arrived with Blaine, his ride for the day, and Kitty was drinking an iced latte. Artie thought back to their first meeting and considered asking her if it was too cold.
While Kitty took her place on the lifeguard stand and the other three got in the water, Artie remained in his chair.
"Come on in, the water's fine," Sam beckoned him.
Artie shook his head. "I'm gonna wait on the kid to get here," he said. "The transfer from chair to pool is part of our lesson today, so I'll have to demonstrate."
He had been thinking about what it was like learning to swim. As a little kid, he knew he'd taken lessons at the community pool, but he couldn't really remember that. So, as far as he was concerned, he had always known how to swim. And then, post-injury, aquatic therapy had become a part of his regimen. He could remember getting in the pool for the first time, a heated indoor swimming pool at his in-patient rehab facility, and how life-altering that single moment had been. He remembered swimming in his new body being the first and only thing that ever came easily to him. He had nearly cried tears of joy immediately afterwards, and his favorite therapist, Javier, understood why without Artie even explaining it. He made sure Artie could get in the pool daily after that and was even the one to recommend that the Abrams family consider putting in a backyard pool.
"Hey, Blaine, you don't have a lesson this morning, right?" Artie asked his friend. When he'd clocked in that morning, Artie hadn't seen Blaine's name on the schedule for the before-lunch shift, so he inferred that Blaine had opted to come in early in order to give Sam a ride.
"Nope," Blaine answered, standing up in the shallow end of the pool and running his hand through his thick natural curls that Artie hadn't realized he had, since they were usually tamed by copious amounts of hair gel. Artie guessed that he'd mostly ditched his usual hair routine for the summer since the gel and chlorine didn't mix very well. Artie liked his summer look. "Need something?"
"I figure it might be best to have an extra set of hands," Artie told him, wringing his hands together nervously. "I think I can handle the actual coaching, but it may be best if I have someone else in the water with us too. Physically supporting him and stuff, since I don't think I'll be able to do much in that department. The kid's pretty young, so I want to make sure he's safe."
"Yeah! Don't worry, I got you!" Blaine replied eagerly, appearing happy to have something helpful to do.
A couple of families had entered the pool area now, and Sam and Marley had hopped out of the water to greet their swimmers. Sam distributed high-fives to each of his kids, and he was just as excited to see them as they were to see him. Artie had observed Sam with his siblings a bunch of times, so he knew that his blonde friend would be a hit with the little kids. That just made Artie more nervous about his own abilities, however– he didn't have little siblings, so aside from a couple of younger cousins he saw a few times a year and Sam's brother and sister, Artie didn't have much experience with kids. Would he even be any good at this?
He wasn't able to spend much longer stressing about it, though, because he saw a mother coming around the right side of the kiddie pool pushing a young boy in a wheelchair. Sam seemed to have spotted them at the same moment that Artie did because he waved Artie over as he went and approached the pair.
"Gabe! My man!" Sam enthusiastically greeted the boy with a high-five before turning to his mom. "Good morning, Mrs. Arnold. How are you?"
"We are doing well," the tall woman who had tanned skin and brown hair underneath her sun hat replied. "Gabriel's been so excited to come back to the pool since we left yesterday."
"Well, that's great, we love to hear that," Sam told her. Her gaze landed on Artie then, in his pool-issued uniform and spandex leggings, and she appeared confused about his presence, since she hadn't seen him there before. "Mrs. Arnold, I wanted to introduce you to my good friend Artie. He's an awesome swimmer, and I thought that maybe Gabe could learn a thing or two from him. If it's cool with you, I've talked to my manager, and we'd like to offer Gabe private lessons with Artie and a lifeguard, for the same price as the group lessons he's currently signed up for."
"Artie Abrams, nice to meet you." Artie was quick to stick out his hand in her direction to introduce himself, as the woman seemed momentarily stunned by the offer she'd been presented with. "I've been in a chair for nine years, and I've been swimming even longer than that, so I am confident I'll be able to help give your son some good advice in the water. With the help of my friend Blaine over there, of course." He pointed over his shoulder to where Blaine stood at the foot of Kitty's lifeguard chair, attempting to chat it up with her, while she tried to ignore him and continue overseeing the pool.
She shook his hand before returning it to the handle of her son's wheelchair. Artie had been worried that his mother would be upset about the sudden change and that she might feel like her son was being excluded from the group. So far, she didn't seem mad about the change of plans. "Nice to meet you, Artie. This is Gabriel."
"Great, great, well, I'll leave you to it," Sam said after they got acquainted, clapping his hands together and glancing over at his group of swimmers who were beginning to get antsy to jump into the pool. "My lesson's about to start, so I've gotta go, but he'll be in great hands with Artie."
"Here, we can head over to the pool too," Artie said to the mother and son. "We'll be working in lane one today, over there by the stairs."
Blaine was still trying to chat with Kitty, who looked as unenthused as ever, and he didn't notice that it was time for the lesson to start until he saw Artie approach.
"Gabriel, this is Blaine, he'll be helping us out in the water today," Artie introduced them. "Blaine, this is Gabriel and his mom."
"I like Gabe better," The boy said, unafraid of correcting Artie on his preferred name, which Artie appreciated, as a kid who'd also grown up hating his given name.
"Well, my real name's Arthur, but I like Artie better." Artie grinned. He liked Gabe already. "How old are you, Gabe?"
"Six," he confidently answered, not appearing to possess any shyness. Artie mused that he kind of reminded him of himself when he was that little. "I like your light-up wheels."
Gabe pointed to Artie's casters that he must've noticed when Artie had led the way over to the edge of the pool. Artie laughed and rolled a pace back to make his wheels flash their rainbow colors again, before pulling forward and locking his wheels in place over by the stairs, making sure to give himself enough space to transfer. "Thanks. And I like your blue chair. I got my first chair when I was a little bit older than you, and my chair was blue too."
Artie had noticed the way that Gabe's mother had pushed him over to the edge of the pool the same way she'd pushed him in from the parking lot. Artie knew he didn't know much about kids aside from his own childhood experiences, but he didn't think being six was all that different from being eight. Artie wondered if Gabe felt bothered when someone pushed his chair like that, the way that Artie had when he was little.
"Alright, Gabe, well, first thing's first, we have to get into the water," Artie told his little protégé as Blaine hopped into the pool and stood by, waiting for his directions from Artie of when to step in and help. "Transferring into the pool can be a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, you won't even think about it. Here, I'll show you first, then I'll guide you through it when it's your turn."
Artie double-checked that his brakes were locked before carefully lifting his feet off of the footrests and beginning the tedious process of lowering himself down to the ground. He'd decided to do this close to the stairs, instead of just at the edge of the water, so that Gabe could sit on the stairs and get acclimated to the water temperature before scooting down them and beginning their lesson.
Once Artie was in the water, he held onto the side of the pool with one hand. He opened his mouth to begin to guide Gabe through the step-by-step process, but he quickly closed it again when Mrs. Arnold took it upon herself to lift Gabe out of his chair and place him gently on the top step of the pool. Blaine shot Artie a glance, knowing that it had been in his lesson plan of sorts, to walk Gabe through the transfer. Mrs. Arnold was overprotective of her son, Artie quickly realized, and she probably thought of him as too young to do much for himself just yet. Artie however, knew that autonomy and independence were important no matter how old you were. Artie didn't know if it was his place to say anything– especially during his first day on the job– so he didn't. He just hoped that he'd be able to get the chance to teach Gabe that transfer before their two weeks together were up.
Artie had watched some YouTube videos and had talked to Sam about the basics, because just knowing how to do something didn't automatically make one a good teacher. In order to really teach a beginner, you had to start very small. The first thing was just making sure Gabe was comfortable enough with putting his face into the water and blowing bubbles. The thing they'd skip that the rest of the kids in Sam's class did next was holding onto the wall and kicking. Gabe seemed pretty much immobile from the waist down, which meant propelling with his feet was out of the question. Artie went straight to demonstrating long reaches with his arms, having Blaine hold Gabe in place while he practicing reaching. And with Blaine now having a secure hold on the little boy, Artie did some demonstrating. He told Gabe to watch how he alternated breathing and taking strokes. He went down and back, slowly. Blaine, who had seen Artie in the pool a handful of times when he'd come over, hadn't ever really seen him when he was doing laps.
"You make that look easy," the other guy commented.
Artie grinned, directing his response to the enthralled little boy who was currently gazing at him with admiration in his eyes. "Well, it is easy," he told them. "It's one of the few things I can honestly say makes me feel like everyone else. Like I can actually keep up."
That level of honestly was something he reserved for people like Gabe and Jon Hubner, people who truly got it. "I can't really keep up when I try to play baseball with my brother," Gabe now admitted. "I just do batting cages."
"Well, we'll have you swimming better than he does!" Artie knew that might have been a bit too much to promise, but the idea of being better at something than his brother clearly appealed to the little boy. Gabe gave him a big grin, big enough to reveal the fact that he was missing his two front teeth.
Unlike the other moms who settled on a lounge chair with a book while the instructors taught the kids' swim lessons, Mrs. Arnold was hovering over their lane the entire time. Though he did feel a little like a bug under a microscope, Artie didn't tell her off. He knew it was in her nature, as the mother of a kid with a disability, to be a bit overprotective. His own mother had been the same way, always overseeing his physical, occupational, and aquatic therapy appointments from no more than an arm's length away.
Artie kept his mouth shut again when, at the end of the lesson, Gabe's mom picked him up from the top stair again and set him back in his wheelchair. Artie tried to remember how worn out he'd been after his sessions with Javier, so he didn't say anything, even though he wanted to remind her that Gabe should have chances to be independent, since his mom wouldn't be around to help him forever.
But their experiences were different, Artie kept reminding himself, and everything that Javier had instilled in him back in the day didn't necessarily apply to Gabe, who'd always had his disability and was still a little younger than Artie had been when he'd gotten injured. Artie couldn't help but make the comparison between Gabe's mom and his own parents, before Javier had gotten his point across that by going out of their way to help him all the time, they were holding him back from being self-sufficient.
"You did a great job today, Gabe, I'm really impressed!" Artie told the boy. He used his arm strength to push himself out of the water and onto the side of the pool, which earned him an impressed gasp from Gabe, which made him laugh. "Maybe tomorrow we can focus on teaching you to get in and out of the pool on your own, how about that?"
Gabe grinned and nodded vigorously. Artie was being paid to teach Gabe how to swim, yes, but, naturally, he also wanted to be sort of a mentor to him, just as Javier had been in his own life. Artie didn't know if Gabe had any sort of disabled role models in his life to teach him this kind of stuff, and Artie was surprised to find how prepared he was to fill that void if he needed to.
"I'd also recommend getting him some swim leggings and water shoes," Artie advised Mrs. Arnold as she worked to dry off Gabe's body so that he wasn't dripping anymore. "It's kind of a silly look, I'll admit, but they really do the trick when it comes to protecting the skin from scrapes and stuff."
"Will do," she assured him. "We'll go to the store on the way home. Thanks for all of your help today, Artie. I'm so glad Gabe gets to learn from someone like himself. Anyway, we'll see you tomorrow!"
Artie was glad to hear that affirmation from Gabe's mother. Up until that point, he wasn't sure how she felt about having Artie take over teaching her son. Today had been about proving himself to her, and it looked like he had succeeded. He thanked her for the compliment and gave Gabe a little fist bump before he left. He was rewarded with another huge, toothless grin.
Blaine hopped out of the water to walk Gabe and his mother over to the front gate. Sam was still finishing up his lesson, so Artie was in no rush to climb back into his chair. After just a half-hour, Artie was exhausted. He'd spent the whole summer swimming in his backyard, so he hadn't expected such a quick session to wear him out so much, but he should have anticipated that the first few lessons with Gabe would consist of mostly him just treading water, and not a lot of actual strokes. He made a mental note to bring a pool noodle from home with him tomorrow, in order to give himself some extra support and allow him to conserve his energy.
He had just reached for the towel that he'd left on the back of his seat and begun to dry himself off when he heard a newly-familiar voice come from behind him.
"You were great with him!" Artie looked over his shoulder and smiled at Marley, who had her towel wrapped beneath her arms. "I hope you don't mind my watching you teach him, but Sam was right. You're the perfect one to help with his lessons. I'm so glad we've got you on board."
"Well, thanks," Artie told the girl, blushing slightly at her compliment. "It's kind of a random comparison, but I directed the school musical last year, so I've gotten used to using my words to describe how to do something without being able to actually demonstrate it myself. It's not so hard once you get used to it."
"Well, you did a great job. And you'll have to tell me more about the school musical later, too." She paused for a second and glanced between him and his vacant chair. "Um, I hope I'm not overstepping or anything, but, uh, do you need any help?"
"Oh! No, I'm good. Just giving my arms a rest."
"Got it. Well, I'm going to go change out of this wet swimsuit before I relieve Kitty on lifeguard duty. See you later, Artie!"
Artie waved goodbye as Marley headed off toward the women's changing room. As if reminded of her presence, he looked over to where Kitty was perched up on her chair and found that her attention was no longer fixed solely on the few swimmers left in the pool. Their eyes locked, and to Artie's surprise, she didn't quickly turn her head and pretend that she hadn't been looking his way, as people usually did when he caught them staring. She knew he'd seen her, and she appeared to be okay with that. He, on the other hand, wasn't sure what to make of this younger blonde girl quite yet.
He began to get self-conscious, sitting there on the side of the pool with her attention on him from afar. Even though he was proud of the way his upper body looked, he didn't have abs or quads that resembled Sam's, that was for sure. He tried to pretend that the weight of her gaze didn't bother him, but he was flustered. Unless she averted her eyes in the next few seconds, she'd be watching him perform the rather clumsy transfer from the edge of the pool up to his chair. And with his arms as fatigued as they were, he wasn't all that confident in his abilities to make the transfer look as swift and effortless as he usually could. He really didn't want an audience for that, but he also couldn't sit there forever, and it didn't seem like Kitty planned on minding her own business any time soon. So, with that in mind...
"Hey, Blaine?" Artie spotted the other guy on his way back. As much as his pride and dignity normally kept him from asking for help, he'd ask if he really needed it. Blaine paused and, without needing to be asked, gathered why he was being summoned over. In a much quicker and more fluid motion, he hoisted Artie up under his arms, depositing him in his seat, and then let Artie take it from there.
"Thanks," he told Blaine. Maybe tomorrow, he thought, though he didn't know why it concerned him so. He certainly didn't need to prove anything, not to this random girl who stared at him. That Marley girl, though... he wouldn't mind impressing her.